Bill Belichick appears to be pleased with what he’s seen from his defense so far through three games, but he appeared to be happy with how one particular sequence played out on Sunday during their 36-20 win over the Raiders.
Following the contest, Belichick mentioned how his defense responded late in the game, which played a key role in how they ultimately finished the game. He was also pleased with the complementary part of how that worked out after the defense followed up New England’s final offensive touchdown with a score of their own.
“Defensively turned the ball over, and I thought that was a great sequence we had there about five minutes ago in the game where we scored, made the tackle, had him back up inside the 10, and strip sacked him,” said Belichick after the game during his press conference. “Had a good complementary sequence there with our defense, with our offense and special teams, and then the defensive score.”
As Belichick pointed out, that sequence started with the offense getting points but they immediately followed it up on special teams on the ensuing kickoff. Jake Bailey boomed the kickoff high down to the one-yard line, which saw New England’s kickoff group get down there and come up with a tackle at the 11-yard line on the return.
But more importantly, they forced a mistake by Las Vegas, with Devontae Booker getting called for an illegal block above the waist, which pushed the Raiders back to their own six yard line.
On the first play from scrimmage, New England’s defense got to Las Vegas quarterback Derek Carr, who had dropped back into the end zone looking to throw the football. Instead, Carr found himself under pressure and took a shot from Shilique Calhoun and Deatrich Wise, with both dragging him down in the end zone for the sack. It was initially ruled a safety, but replays showed that Carr actually lost the football on his way to the turf and Wise came up with the turnover and a touchdown.
That ended up being a huge play in the game after the Raiders came back on the next drive and scored a touchdown, marching 75-yards on 10 plays, with Carr hitting Hunter Renfrow for a 13-yard touchdown. But thanks to that play, the Patriots held a two score advantage at 36-20 and it ultimately shut the door on any chance for a Raiders comeback.
It wasn’t easy, but they got it done and Belichick was happy to see his team hang in there and eventually come out on top.
“I thought it was a real good effort by our football team, really proud of the way they competed all week,” said Belichick. “It was a tough week, but they really battled through it. The Raiders are a good football team. They’re well-coached. They have a lot of good players, a lot of talent. I thought we really stepped up and competed hard today.”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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